I find that when discussing the historical context of recent history it is best to confer among those who lived through it. Now, American Slavery isn’t exceptionally recent, but it’s certainly recent enough (156 years) that we still have firsthand accounts of what it was like to be a slave.

Of course though, with any politically charged historical topic such as slavery, there will be disagreements regarding the facts. In brief mention, the popular divisiveness regarding the history of American slavery I believe can best be understood through the context of the Lost Cause mythos of the American South. However, I don’t want to get into the Lost Cause here as I am certain there are already many questions and answers on this subreddit regarding the topic and the idealized white-washing of what American slavery was, and I would instead prefer to refer to a direct source here who dedicated the entirety of his post-servitude life to dispelling the myth of any sort of genial slave state: Mr. Frederick Douglass.

If you haven’t read much of Mr. Douglass, I would certainly recommend it. Douglass, born in Maryland on an unknown date had a varied life as a slave. He was at first a house slave in his youth, tried to escape, sent to a notorious “slave breaker” in North Carolina where he was a field slave, and then a house slave again in Baltimore where he finally escaped his servitude.

Throughout his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, one component that arises throughout the book is food.

From the text:

"Our food was coarse corn meal boiled. This was called mush. It was put into a large wooden tray or trough, and set down upon the ground. The children were then called, like so many pigs, and like so many pigs they would come and devour the mush; some with oyster-shells, others with pieces of shingle, some with naked hands, and none with spoons. He that ate fastest got most; he that was strongest secured the best place; and few left the trough satisfied."

In addition, Douglass makes mention of how food was used as a mechanism of division against the slaves in that the masters would invite loyal slaves into the house to feast, which Douglass remarks that the division "between these favored few, and the sorrow and hunger-smitten multitudes of the quarter and the field, was immense."Per Douglass, hunger-smitten multitudes were left to hunt, fish, garden, and steal, for survival.

Furthermore, in The Narrative is mentioned that “the men and women slaves received, as their monthly allowance of food, eight pounds of pork, or its equivalent in fish, and one bushel of corn meal.” Which, an NPR article (linked below) further elaborated upon as “In truth, rations consisted of a monthly allowance of a bushel of third-rate corn, pickled pork (which was "often tainted") and "poorest quality herrings" – barely enough to sustain grown men and women through their backbreaking labors in the field.”

Lastly, to drive home the point of the human debasement of American slaves and how slave owners neglected to keep them in good health for adequate labor, consider how Douglass describes their clothing:

“Their yearly clothing consisted of two coarse linen shirts, one pair of linen trousers, like the shirts, one jacket, one pair of trousers for winter, made of coarse negro cloth, one pair of stockings, and one pair of shoes; the whole of which could not have cost more than seven dollars. The allowance of the slave children was given to their mothers, or the old women having the care of them. The children unable to work in the field had neither shoes, stockings, jackets, nor trousers, given to them; their clothing consisted of two coarse linen shirts per year. When these failed them, they went naked until the next allowance-day. Children from seven to ten years old, of both sexes, almost naked, might be seen at all seasons of the year.”

Or consider their sleeping conditions:

“There were no beds given the slaves, unless one coarse blanket be considered such, and none but the men and women had these. They find less difficulty from the want of beds, than from the want of time to sleep; for when their day's work in the field is done, the most of them having their washing, mending, and cooking to do, and having few or none of the ordinary facilities for doing either of these, very many of their sleeping hours are consumed in preparing for the field the coming day; and when this is done, old and young, male and female, married and single, drop down side by side, on one common bed,—the cold, damp floor,— each covering himself or herself with their miserable blankets; and here they sleep till they are summoned to the field by the driver's horn.”

In sum, I believe it is safe to say that American slaves did not eat well. I think when considering the complexities of American slavery it is best to remember it for what it was: barbarity of the basest form of the human race, tortuous, and inhumane where there is little incentive to take adequate care of a slave. American slaves were treated as less than cattle, as less than a plow. And none of this is to make mention of the psychological torture, turning slaves into spies among each other, any mention of the hard labor, slave breaking, slave inheritance, selling slaves, physical abuse, lack of family, education, and identity.

I believe a fair rule of thumb to help our understanding when considering the conditions of chattel slavery when asking oneself “just how bad could it have been”, is that “it was probably worse than you could imagine.”

Sources:

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Free to read here: https://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbcb.25385/?sp=27&st=text)

NPR - Frederick Douglass On How Slave Owners Used Food As A Weapon Of Control (https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/02/10/514385071/frederick-douglass-on-how-slave-owners-used-food-as-a-weapon-of-control)

Some claim that a slave working in the fields on a plantation was well fed because they were expensive investments that had to be maintained, and so ate 3500-4500 calories a day, though the food was pretty basic and often not of the best quality.

Not to distract from /u/triscuitsrule excellent write up of Frederick Douglass's narrative, the 3500 - 4500 figure appears to trace back to "Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Slavery" by Fogel and Engerman. The book was controversial upon it's release due to the overall thesis (i.e., slavery was economically viable and benefited the enslaved in some ways) and has largely either been discredited or superseded by other works. However, they did include a chapter discussing food, shelter, and clothing (p. 109 - 117). The authors note (in good agreement with Douglass's reports) that pork and corn was the core of the diet since they could be stored throughout the year, although it would be supplemented with seasonal foods. Across the entire population slaves on large plantations in the cotton belt they argued that the likely diet consisted of eleven key items: beef, pork, mutton, milk, butter, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, peas, corn, wheat, and minor grains. This lead the to an estimate of about 4185 calories per day worth of food, with a reasonable nutritional balance.

However, the authors base most of their analysis and argument on the 1860 census and some limited plantation records. Coupled with the original publication date of 1974 and a generous read is that the authors may not have had much material to work with at the time.

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Fogel, R. W., & Engerman, S. (1989). Time On the Cross the economics of American Slavery. Nova York, Northon.